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Spanish Authorities Arrest Anonymous Hackers

Three suspects were held by the National Police in Spain on June 10, 2011 for organizing DDOS attacks against the websites that are preserved by various organizations, such as Governments, banks, and Sony Corp as reported by news published in tom's GUIDE on June 10, 2011.

The investigation was initiated on October 2010, after the Spain's Ministry of Culture came under a DDOS attack that was organized through websites and chat networks by unidentified people, as reported in COMPUTERWORLD on June 14, 2011.

According to the authorities, the DDOS attacks were effectively conducted as one of the suspects was hosting a server inside a house in Gijon, north of Spain. This attack contained software which is designed specifically in order to create malware and specific encryption techniques that aided into hiding their identity while conducting attacks through open Wi-Fi networks.

This group of suspects attracted followers who ended up into downloading a tool called the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, which is an easy DDOS tool that aids the attacks. For carrying out the DDOS attacks, some of unnamed members though technically more skilful utilized these botnets or networks of hacked computers.

The Technological Investigation Brigade Group under the National Police claims to have analyzed more than 2,000,000 lines of log chats and web pages for finding out the area of operations in Spain and for collecting sufficient evidence before making the arrests. The three detained suspects are in their 30s now and one of them is even employed with the Merchant Navy. This incidence of arrest in Spain against suspected members of the Anonymous Group is the first evidence of this kind followed by the detention held in the US and Britain, reports Reuters in the news published by eWEEK on June 12, 2011.

These members are structured in independent cells and conduct numerous similar attacks by using infected Zombie computers throughout the world. This is the underlying reason for which NATO considers them a hazard to the military alliance, reports police in a statement. These suspects are competent enough to destroy the administrative structure of a country, reports news published in tom's Guide on June 10, 2011.

Nevertheless, the arrested men were charged of forming an illegal association with the intention of attacking public and corporate websites, for which they are legible to face a prison sentence of up to three yeas in prison.

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